I am Grisha
by Destiny Rain Evans
Summary: "You never have to be afraid again," The Darkling murmured, "not of slavers, Grisha or anyone else." He raised his hand and pointed at the trembling man on the ground, "all you have to do, is kill him." Darkling/OC Takes place after the third book.


**_Hi! _**

**_This is my first story, I hope you like it._**

**_Special thanks to my Beta Reader, Adrian Kidd._**

_I am Grisha_

_ By: Destiny Rain Evans_

_ Book one in the Heartrender trilogy_

_ Prologue: Grave listening _

_ or_

_ A tale of an oath repaid, a mission accomplished and a promise._

_The girl stood by the outpost, waiting for the chance to redeem her oath. __Paying no mind to the tainted prince who was shouting orders at the camp, the girl watched as a skiff pushed past the bleached sands of the newly shattered fold where the blessed Sunsummoner and her lover had slain the Darkling. She watched as a body was lowered from the skiff into the sands. It was draped in a blue kefta, but there was no mistaking who it was by the blood pooling out of it. The girl stepped forwards and helped the guards take the body to the tent where the dead were prepared. The girl then bided her time, mingling with the crowds at the taverns and learning all about what had happened in the fold._

_The light that several people now wielded instead of one, the supposed death of the Sunsummoner, the death of the Darkling; she learned of it all. That night, when all the guards had fallen asleep, she slipped into the tent where the scarred Grisha worked on the body of the Sunsummoner's guard. As the girl had thought, the body now resembled that of the Sunsummoner. She stepped forwards into the light, revealing her dark red hair and her bright, glistening green eyes. _

"_I need you to do something for me." The Grisha turned to her, shock written all over her face as the girl walked over to the Darkling's body. Placing her hand over the wound on his chest, the girl closed her eyes, leaving the scarred Grisha to stare in shock as the wound closed and the Darkling's chest began to rise and fall slightly. _

"_How...?" She asked, and the girl turned to her. _

"_Make a body like his," she snarled, and the Grisha shook her head mutely. The girl squeezed her hand slightly and she cried out as her heart beat a tiny bit faster. _

"_You're Grisha!" She cried before understanding crossed her face. "He's a monster, why would you bring him back?" The girl sighed and brushed her hair back from her face. _

"_Less talking" she said, as she squeezed her hand tighter. The Grisha gasped, her face a bright red color. She went to the body of one of the guards and began working. When dawn broke, the Darkling and the girl were gone, leaving the Grisha sitting on the ground in shock._

The Darkling opened his eyes to see sunlight filtering in through chips in boards. The creak of a boat and the rush of water met his ears and he became aware of a gentle rocking sensation. His throat was parched, he noticed. His body sore and his stomach feeling queasy from the rocking of the boat. Slowly, the Darkling's memories came back,_ "Alone, alone, alone," _then _"Pain, Alina, cold…"_

He rolled over, regretting it instantly as his head swam.

"Here," the red robed Grisha sitting before him said as she handed him a cup full of water. She was beautiful, he thought, not that that was unusual for a Grisha, but her chipped and bitten nails belayed that beauty. She did seem slightly familiar...The Darkling hesitated as he looked at the glass of water, he really didn't want to accept charity, but was really too thirsty to resist.

Making a decision, he grabbed the cup in one swift movement, swallowing all the liquid quickly. Too quickly, it appeared, as he felt suddenly nauseous. He rolled away from the red haired Grisha, the contents of his stomach, really only water, splattering all over the deck. The Grisha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, but not speaking a word as she grabbed a rag and moved around the bed to begin cleaning up the mess.

It was only then that the Darkling remembered who she was.

"Nya," The Darkling gasped and she turned, her high cheekbones and stunning beauty a sharp contrast to the last time he had seen her, begging in the mud.

"Ah," she said, her voice smooth and gentle, "you remember, I wondered if you would." He leaned back, his uncut hair falling in his face. He remembered the girl begging him to save her brother, the power he had seen inside her as she ripped two men's hearts to pieces with a flick of her fingers. He had not seen her since then.

"You should have left me for dead," he said bitterly, leaning back against the wood of his bed as he brushed back the hair from his face. Nya turned to him, the dirty rag she was using hanging from her hands.

"Cheer up," she said, "look on the bright side, there are hundreds more like you now." The thought brought him back to the present, he wondered where Alina was, if she was safe, if she was happy, if she was mourning him...

"Why did you save me?" He asked, and Nya sighed as she finished cleaning up the dirty water: all the contents of his stomach.

"I owe you, remember?" she asked, and he chuckled. Her brother, bleeding, dying, ordering a healer to tend to him, and to bring the little girl who had been trying to heal him over to him. He remembered, he just hadn't really thought it indebted her to him. The Darkling watched her as she brushed her ginger hair out of her face.

"Where are we headed?" he asked, and she smirked.

"Novyi Zem," she said. He paled. Novyi Zem was the one place, besides Ravka, that it was safe to go for Grisha, but you still had to watch your powers. Slave trades were very popular there and the favorite of the buyers was Grisha. The Darkling scowled quietly but didn't argue. He couldn't go back to Ravka, not with that bastard prince on the throne. The only options left were Novyi Zem, death by torture, or burning at the stake.

He leaned back on the bed he was lying on, only now realizing that it was really was some crates with a blanket draped over them. The Darkling scowled more deeply, unhappy with this turn of events as he rested his head against the balled up blanket that was his pillow. He let himself drift off into thoughts of what must be left of his army. Alina had lost her power that he knew, so the bastard prince would probably have no more use for her. She was probably holed up somewhere with the tracker, nursing their wounds.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because when he opened his eyes, the bang of the ship against the dock made him jump and nearly fall out of the bed.

"This is where I leave you." The Darkling raised an eyebrow at her as she watched the stairs nervously. He wondered if the shipmates knew they were in the bay, he wouldn't put it past her to sneak onto the boat, though it didn't really matter, he could kill them all with a single thought.

He pushed himself up, his feet nearly giving out underneath him. As loathsome as he was to admit it, he needed her help. He could barely get off the bed without her.

"Take me to the nearest inn," he said icily to her, causing her to hesitate as she thought over this new twist, weighing the pros and cons.

"Fine," she grabbed him and dragged him out of the ships hull, into the burning sunlight. The Darkling felt a sudden wrench in his chest as the warm light hit him and he remembered the last time he had seen sunlight, when he had lain dying on the cold sands of the Fold. Nya pulled his arm over her shoulder as he stumbled. The sailors ignored them as they moved through their midst.

Pulling himself up on her shoulder and ignoring the grunt of pain coming from her as they stepped off the boat, the Darkling did a quick inventory of their surroundings. The port looked like any other port one might see in Novyi Zem; the bustling people, the guards, the thieves, the prostitutes. He hated this place, it reeked of desperation and corruption, all things he knew about very well. The Darkling let Nya pull him into an inn with a sign outside that proudly proclaimed that its name was_ "The Skinned Cat." _A pot with a tail sticking out of it made it all to clear what that meant.

Nya pulled him inside, past the giggling waitresses and the drunk sailors, to the front of the room where a tired looking old man was counting cash at a desk.

"A room for my friend," Nya said, pushing back a long lock of dark red hair from her face. The man didn't even raise his head from his counting, he only held up his hand and said, "Three pieces." Nya took a piece of pressed gold from her pocket and handed it to the man.

"Three weeks' worth of gold then," she said and the man raised his eyes and stared at the gold for a moment before nodding vigorously, his eyes filled with greed, "and breakfast, lunch and dinner." The man nodded even faster and Nya seemed relieved before she covered it up with a stern glare.

"And if anything happens to my friend here..." She fisted her hand and the man choked as his heart fluttered nervously, blood appearing on his dry, cracked lips as he licked them a few times, "Agreed?" The man nodded and she smirked as she opened her fist. Shaking and muttering curses against Grisha beneath his breath, the old man went to the desk on the other side of the room and drew a key from one of the drawers, trying desperately to hide his shaking hands. He hurried back and handed it to Nya, the Darkling was amused at the expression of utter terror on his face as she plucked the key from his fingers.

"_That was how the otkazat'sya should look at us" _The Darkling smirked_._

"Good," Nya said to the old man, as she grabbed the Darkling's hand and pulled it tighter around her shoulders. She nudged him towards the stairs and he went, glaring at the otkazat'sya the whole time as the innkeeper bent down to continue counting his profits, his hands shaking.

As they walked in the screech and scuttling of rats made them both wince. Nya laid the Darkling down on the bed and pulled the covers over him as he drifted off to sleep. Pulling the blankets tighter around him, she reflected on how hard it had been to save him. She had known he would fail; there really was no way that he could not. He had enraged the Sunsummoner too much. When The Darkling had been sleeping, she had taken a Fabrikator made drug and had placed three drops in his mouth. When he was stabbed, the drug, which had been formerly harmless, slowed his heart enough for someone to think him dead. Any Healer or Heartrender that would have looked closer would have noticed the traces the toxin left, the tiny, but still present beat of his heart, the slow breath every minute or so. All it took was a small kick, provided by her, to get him back on his feet. She leaned back and brushed a dark lock of hair away from his face.

"My debt is repaid, along with my oath to pay it back," she murmured. "Do not ruin the chance I have given you." She turned to leave, but the Darkling's hand slipped from the covers and seized onto her arm.

"When I call for you," he hissed through his teeth, "will you answer?" She turned to face him and hesitated, if she answered she would be picking sides, something she abhorred doing, but the Darkling was a powerful enemy… She nodded once and turned to leave, and this time, he let her.

**_That's the end of the first chapter, please let me know what you think._**


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